


Lips

by headcanonftw



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Character Study, Dean's lips, Drabble, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2017-12-07 21:29:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/753271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/headcanonftw/pseuds/headcanonftw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quiet consideration of Dean Winchester's lips.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lips

Dean’s lips looked so thin when they were little. Nothing like the plush, rounded things everyone saw now, that Dean had learned to work and pout and tilt up in sultry smirks, and looked just as good moving as he chewed as puckering at the mouth of a beer bottle as stretching to take a cock. 

Sam had always loved Dean’s lips. But he still remembered how thin they used to look, how he never even used to know what color Dean’s lips were because he never saw them. It was because Dean was constantly strained. Most kids would have broken under the pressure Dean had endured as a child, between looking after himself and Sammy, learning to shoot guns and clean wounds and wield salt and iron, and just knowing what was out there in the dark. The few who might have been able to carry it would have slumped with the weight of it, or else turned so hard or cold they would have barely felt real. 

But Dean always stood up straight, said “Yes, sir” and “No, sir” with a conviction it takes years to beat into even the most loyal of soldiers, and did what was asked of him and more, always more. His eyes got old too soon, and his shoulders broadened too early from handling guns and carrying responsibility, but overall he was normal. Except his lips, which he held too tight all the time, his one unconscious crutch. Sam never quite knew whether he was biting back words, tears, or just generally trying to keep from shaking apart, but that was where he held all his tension. Dean’s mouth rarely opened wide when he spoke, his lips too busy squeezing together to bother letting words pass, and Dad reprimanded him more than once for not speaking up properly. Even with Sam, when they were alone in a motel room or eating dinner together with cartoons on in the background, his lips were pursed, cautious. 

But sometimes, Sam would catch him at just the right angle as he laughed, or pin him for just a second as they wrestled, and Sam would see him relax just that little bit and his lips would look soft. And when Sam realized that he was in love with his brother, he decided he wanted them to look soft and calm like that all the time. 

The first time Sam kissed his brother, it felt kind of like kissing his own bruised knuckles, for Dean’s lips were tighter and thinner than ever and they twitched away as if stung even as Dean sat frozen in place from shock. But really, it didn’t take much coaxing before Sam got him to respond, and little by little his mouth softened. By the end of that first awkward, hot, sticky session, Dean’s lips were red and swollen, and Dean was panting and sweating so much that Sam got his first real look at how beautiful they were. As he reached out and traced the delicate bow of his top lip and the ample roundness of the bottom, Sam couldn’t believe there could possibly be anything more perfect about his already beautiful brother. 

Now, driving along dark highways in a broken world, ruining motel walls with blood sigils instead of just laying salt lines, relearning to appreciate what they’d squandered for so long, Sam remembered Dean’s lips. They were tense again now, smaller than they’d been for a long time but too large after all these years to truly hide them, and Sam could see where the tightness of them was cutting deep grooves into his brother’s cheeks. And as he looked, for the first time in longer than he cared to admit, he saw that his eyebrows were furrowed and his eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched and his skin dull. He looked so much older now, was so much older now but this was different. Sam approached him slowly, carefully, and caught his eye, trying to tell him to release the tension in his face and let himself be as beautiful as he usually was without even having to try. At the contact of Sam’s fingers on his skin, Dean visibly relaxed, the lines smoothed out and everything tense was let go. Sam descended upon him carefully, deliberately coaxing his mouth into slow, smooth, sloppy movement. They parted before the desperation hit, and Sam looked down at his brother’s serene face and slack mouth. And once again, like the first time but so unlike recent times, Sam just touched his lips, ghosted over them carefully like they might break, and just drank in the sight.

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely adored Ridge Canipe, the kid who played young Dean in 'Something Wicked' and 'A Very Supernatural Christmas,' but I always thought it was funny how thin his lips were compared to Jensen's. I've also been noticing that Dean's lips have been looking thinner in the later seasons, like he's always pursing them in fear, and then this dawned on me. Sorry it's not very polished, it's unbeta'd.


End file.
